Rebels launch operation in Aleppo region

Friday

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels have begun a major operation in the Aleppo region, aiming to strike at security compounds and bases around Syria's largest city, activists said today.

It would be evidence that weeks of intense bombardments by the Syrian military, including airstrikes, have failed to dislodge the rebels. Instead, fighting rages across the country in a 17-month civil war that shows no sign of ending soon.

The rebel offensives in Aleppo are led by a brigade made up mostly of army defectors who specialize in operating artillery and tanks, said Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in the city.

He said the first attacks began shortly before midnight yesterday and lasted until today, when the "Brigade of Free Syrians" launched coordinated strikes on several security compounds in Aleppo.

"The new operations aim to strike at regime forces' centers and air bases throughout Aleppo" province, Saeed said via Skype.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of today's targets was a compound in the Aleppo neighborhood of Zahraa, killing and wounding a number of troops. It gave no figures.

Saeed said rebels attacked four security buildings around Aleppo, using tanks, rocket launchers and machine guns.

The state-run news agency, SANA, said troops killed and wounded several gunmen in the clashes.

Rebels took parts of Aleppo last month. Since then, government forces have been trying to recapture them. Rebels also control much of the wider Aleppo province, including areas on the border with Turkey.

Activists estimate more than 20,000 people have been killed in the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

There has been fighting all over Syria, including the capital, Damascus, showing that the rebels have a presence in main population centers, not just the outlying districts where they started.

The observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, reported clashes and shelling between troops and rebels in other areas, including the southern province of Daraa, around Damascus and in the central region of Homs.